Is TREC Behind on Real Estate Applications Right Now?

Updated October 16, 2026 from Texas Real Estate Commission records.

Yes, and TREC says so itself — but it publishes no numbers alongside the notice. We count the queue every day. As of October 16, 2026 there are 3,087 applications sitting in TREC's public pending file, and over the last three days applications have been leaving it at 204–204 a day.

What TREC says

TREC's processing dates page currently states that "there are delays processing applications because of integrations between the REALM Portal with our exam vendor and DPS fingerprinting", that it is "actively working on a fix", and that once resolved it should be able to "process many of the applications that have been held up".

It also carries a warning worth repeating, because it contradicts what applicants are told elsewhere: the form letter from PearsonVUE after you pass the exam may say you should receive your license within 10 business days, and TREC states plainly that this "is not accurate because of the REALM Portal integration issues".

What the notice does not include is a single figure — no queue size, no wait, no indication of whether it is improving. That is the gap this page fills.

For context on how long this has run: TREC moved licensing onto the REALM Portal on 2 December 2025, and the disruption that followed has been reported since the spring, with agents describing months unable to work. The counts below are the first public measure of whether that is finally ending.

Is the backlog clearing?

This is the question that matters, and it is answerable only by watching the queue day to day. TREC's pending file is a rolling snapshot: an application that disappears from it has been resolved. We archive that file daily, so we can count both arrivals and departures.

From our daily archive of TREC's pending application dataset. The first day of our series is omitted, because on a first run every record looks new. "Left the queue" means the application no longer appears in TREC's file — usually licensed, though withdrawal and expiry look identical from outside.

Read the middle column. Departures ran in the single digits per day at the end of August and rose into the hundreds from 1 September. That is what a backlog beginning to move looks like, and it is consistent with TREC's statement that a fix was close. Two cautions, because this is a young series: the earliest figures may partly reflect our own pipeline settling rather than the queue standing still, and one week is not a trend. We keep counting, and this page updates daily.

How old are the applications still waiting?

The queue's age profile as of October 16, 2026:

75% of pending applications (2,327) were filed more than 90 days ago, and 40% (1,220) more than 270 days ago.

Do not read that as TREC's processing time, and be wary of anyone who does. An application's one-year clock starts when it is filed, and it covers work belonging to the applicant as much as to the agency — finishing 180 hours of coursework, sitting and possibly resitting the exam, and finding a sponsoring broker. An application filed 250 days ago may be waiting on TREC, or on its own candidate. TREC's public file does not distinguish the two and neither can we. What the age profile does show is how much of the queue is deep into its one-year window: an application expires a year after filing, and the oldest records here sit close to that line.

What to do while this is happening

• Do not chase a fingerprint letter while your status reads "Submitted". TREC issues the scheduling email only after the status changes to "In Review", and asks applicants specifically not to contact the agency before then.
• Ignore the 10-business-day figure in the PearsonVUE letter. TREC has said in writing that it is not accurate at the moment.
• Use the wait. Nothing on this page moves your application, but the exam is the next thing that will: TREC releases you to schedule it once it has reviewed your education, and 56.12% of candidates pass both portions first time. Exam prep is sold separately from the 180 hours — PrepAgent is one (affiliate link: commission to this site at no extra cost to you), and the pass-rate page shows how each school's students actually do.
• Check your own application rather than relying on any average. TREC publishes an Application Status Tracker. Nothing on this page tells you where your file stands; that does, and it is the first thing to try.
• Watch for correspondence rather than waiting silently. TREC says it will notify you if it needs more information or if there is a background-check problem, and that a background investigation adds delay on top of everything here.
• Do not file early hoping to get ahead of the queue. Certificates upload with the application, TREC instructs applicants not to submit until education is complete, and exam scheduling is released only after TREC has reviewed it. The full requirements, in TREC's order

How this is measured

Download the full daily series as CSV — arrivals, departures and queue size for every day we have, with the source dataset named, under a CC-BY licence. Check it, cite it, or argue with it.

TREC publishes its pending applications as an open dataset and overwrites it — there is no archive, so the record of what sat in the queue yesterday exists only if somebody kept it. We started keeping it, which is the only reason the day-to-day flow above can be shown at all. Counts come from data.texas.gov and are recomputed daily; the method and its limits are on our methodology page. For how long a completed journey takes, see our measured processing times — noting that those figures were measured across this same disrupted period.

Common questions

Is TREC behind on processing real estate license applications?

Yes. TREC states on its processing dates page that there are delays caused by integrations between the REALM Portal, its exam vendor and DPS fingerprinting. As of October 16, 2026 there were 3,087 applications in TREC's public pending file.

Why has my Texas real estate license not arrived in 10 business days?

TREC has stated that the form letter from PearsonVUE indicating you should receive your license within 10 business days is not accurate, because of REALM Portal integration issues with Pearson VUE exam records.

How many Texas real estate license applications are pending?

3,087 as of October 16, 2026, from TREC's public pending application dataset. 2,327 of them, or 75 percent, were filed more than 90 days ago — though that age includes applicant-side steps such as coursework and the exam, not only agency processing time.

When should I contact TREC about my fingerprint appointment?

TREC sends the fingerprint scheduling email after your application status changes from Submitted to In Review, and asks applicants not to contact the agency requesting a fingerprint letter while the status is still Submitted.